The present invention relates to improvement of appearance of a transparent ornament, and more specifically to heightening of value as an ornament by increasing glitter through increase in transmission and reflection of light internally of the transparent ornament material, such as glass or the like.
Diamonds are commonly used in jewelry. The reason why the diamond holds the highest position among gemstones is due to the fact that the diamond itself has excellent features such as transparency and a high refractive index and because the reflected quantity of light and the refraction state of light can be delicately varied by changing the method of cutting. The brilliant-cut is presently considered to more eminently show the splendid beauty of a diamond than any other method of cutting, such as the square-cut or the emerald-cut.
The beauty of a brilliant-cut diamond is attributable to the large quantity of total reflection. Due to a high refractive index, the total reflection area and total reflection quantity are large. Hence, a diamond shines with what is known as brilliancy. The total reflection light is dispersed due to the difference of the refractive index in accordance with oscillation frequencies of respective colors and broken into seven colors. This rainbow of seven colors is known as "fire." Furthermore, the light totally reflected from the facet planes moves, while glittering, every time the diamond moves or the eyes of the observer move. This latter phenomenon is called scintillation. By means of the brilliant-cut, brilliancy, dispersion and scintillation are maximized, thus enhancing the beauty of the diamond.
One prior art approach for improving the beauty of a diamond is that disclosed in Republic of South Africa Patent Application Number 7018135 (corresponding to Japanese Patent Provisional Publication Number 47-11241) filed Dec. 1, 1970, and entitled "A Cut Diamond and A Cut Method thereof". In this invention, a square-cut method is adopted to improve the yield from the rough diamond.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 690,401, filed May 27, 1976 (now U.S. Pat. No. 4,020,649) (corresponding to Japanese Patent Provisional Publication Number 52-147170) and entitled "Cut Jewel Made Brilliant" relates to a hybrid-cut method for combining the advantages of the square-cut method in maximizing raw material yield of the rough diamond and of the brilliant-cut method in imparting superior brilliancy to a diamond.
Japanese Patent Application Number 254360 filed on Sep. 29, 1989 (Laid-Open Number 3-115582) is entitled "Method of Coating Precious Metals on Diamond" and describes a method of coating precious metals on a diamond.
However, no technique for improving the ornamental appearance of a light transmission material has been known up to now, other than variations of the cut and precious metal coating.